George Gascon, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 was introduced today as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

George Gascon, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 was introduced today as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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George Gascon speaks with the news media as he is introduced, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

George Gascon speaks with the news media as he is introduced, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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George Gascon is introduced, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

George Gascon is introduced, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Current San Francisco Police chief Heather Fong speaks to the media during the introduction George Gascon, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif.

Current San Francisco Police chief Heather Fong speaks to the media during the introduction George Gascon, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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Current Police Chief Heather Fong is hugged by George Gascon, (right), on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as Gascon is introduced as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

Current Police Chief Heather Fong is hugged by George Gascon, (right), on Wednesday June 17, 2009 as Gascon is introduced as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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George Gascon, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 was introduced today as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

George Gascon, on Wednesday June 17, 2009 was introduced today as the new Police Chief of San Francisco, Calif. which he will begin in late July.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

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S.F.'s new top cop looks to be tailor-made

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When he takes charge at San Francisco's Hall of Justice later this summer, new Police Chief George Gascón will be the first outsider to lead the department since the 1970s - but those who've worked closely with him in Los Angeles and Arizona say he's tailor-made for this unique city.

His controversial views on illegal immigration match Mayor Gavin Newsom's. He's weathered his share of scandal, political battles and budget cuts. He was an outsider when he took his current job as police chief in Mesa, Ariz. ("the largest city that you've never heard of," said former Mesa City Councilwoman Claudia Walters), but eventually won over his officers.

Throw in the 55-year-old Gascón's obsession with technology, the intellectualism that led him to earn a law degree and participate in a three-year Harvard project to improve policing, his concern for health that makes his breakfasts with city officials consist of fruit and tea, his love of surfing and his comfort in the spotlight, and maybe it's an oddly perfect match.

"You're a limelight city," said Bryan Soller, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Mesa. "He loves to be moving and grooving, and you guys do that out there. You guys make us look like Mayberry."

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton worked closely with Gascón for several years and agreed it's a good fit.

"From the issues I understand you have in San Francisco, it's the right person at the right time in the right place," Bratton told The Chronicle. "I've worked in this business for 40 years, and he's one of the best there is."

Gascón was raised in Cuba, the only child of his parents, Maria and Marcos, a mechanic who fixed trucks at a beer brewery. Marcos Gascón initially supported the revolution led by Fidel Castro.

"But then he realized democracy was not to be and became an opponent of it," his son recalled. "Police controlled every aspect of your life."

Gascón described seeing police abuse of civilians in the streets and his neighbors' widespread fear of the police and government in general. The disillusioned Gascóns joined extended family in Los Angeles when George Gascón was 13. He said his childhood led him to become a strong advocate for human rights and to hold firm beliefs about what is appropriate police conduct and what is not.

He said that belief was strengthened by weathering the LAPD's Ramparts scandal, the widespread corruption in the anti-gang unit that rocked the department in the 1990s. Gascón was a captain at the time and was chosen to join a small group to look at the failures in management and supervision that allowed the corruption to spread.

"Good, hardworking, ethical police officers are some of the most honorable people who walk the face of the earth," he said. "If you're a hardworking, ethical officer, you'll have my full support. If you're not, we'll have to talk."

Several of his Mesa colleagues said that was a theme of his tenure.

"He's a stickler for protecting rights," said Mayor Scott Smith. "He will enforce the law without apology, but he also is absolutely committed to doing it in a way that recognizes that law enforcement is useless unless you understand that constitutional rights are the most important thing."

Reigning with transparency

Walters, the vice mayor when Gascón was hired, said the chief was concerned that everything in his department "pass the headline test."

"He's very tight about making sure you do things on the up-and-up - no hanky-panky," she said. "He doesn't even want the appearance of it."

Occasionally, that's meant angering police officers when he goes straight to the media upon hearing of potential misconduct. Earlier this month, police officers and paramedics were called to a Mesa hotel where a pregnant woman was experiencing a miscarriage. The officials were confused about what to do with the fetus and wound up flushing it down the toilet.

Gascón immediately held a press conference - before police union leaders had a chance to investigate what had happened and prompting them to call the chief's conference premature. No criminal charges are expected to be filed against the officers.

Gascón said he is "obligated to be transparent" and doesn't regret going to the media. He said he often tells his officers that if they give him a good story, he'll take that to the media, too.

In stark contrast to the press-shy current San Francisco Chief Heather Fong, Gascón is known for having a tight relationship with the media - and is even engaged to be married at the end of this year to a reporter for the Spanish-language TV channel, Univision. (The couple are house-hunting in San Francisco, and she may move from Los Angeles at some point.)

A reputation for change

Going to the media isn't the only thing that's angered Mesa police officers. They were resistant to Gascón when he arrived from the LAPD and quickly began shaking up the department - though they are now big supporters of his.

"He's done a lot of good here," said Stoller, the police union president. "Your department better get ready, though. He's going to come in there, and he's going to clean house and he's going to come up with these new programs. The best thing I can tell the guys there is try them before you get really upset."

In Mesa, Gascón moved detectives out of police headquarters and into district stations, which many say helped improve the homicide clearance rate from 55 percent when he arrived to above 90 percent now. San Francisco's is notoriously low, with just a quarter of homicides leading to prosecution.

Gascón also created a "fusion center" where public safety officials from around the region work together and brought in the program Compstat, which he also used in Los Angeles, to track crime statistics and deploy officers to high-crime areas. Those initiatives are credited with lowering the number of homicides in Mesa from 26 in 2006 to just three so far this year.

He did this despite major budget cuts to his department three years in a row. Mesa is unusual in that it levies no property tax and has had to cut the budgets of just about every department.

Change and innovation have marked Gascón's entire career, and he's now participating in a three-year project at Harvard to study how to improve policing. The project involves 15 police chiefs, and Gascón is pairing with researcher Todd Foglesong to study how to reduce the cost of policing while increasing performance.

Foglesong said he's enjoyed hearing about Gascón's discussions with his daughter (he has two, 25 and 27 years old, from a previous marriage) who's finishing law school. Gascón's daughter is unsure whether to pursue immigration law or take a job in a corporate firm.

"He's never told her what he thinks is best - he's helped her figure out what she wants to do," Foglesong said. "I think that applies to his vision of public safety. The police department doesn't necessarily know what's best, and it has to work with the community to come up with what is best."

Sanctuary city controversy

But what got the most attention during Gascón's stay in Mesa was his pitched battle with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, who dubs himself the toughest sheriff in America, led sweeps of Mesa libraries, City Hall and other institutions looking for illegal immigrants so he could turn them over to federal authorities for deportation.

During one two-day sweep of Mesa last June that Arpaio dubbed "Operation Ghost," Gascón had authorized the creation of "free speech zones" for demonstrators and turned his own officers out in force to keep the peace - or, as Arpaio's allies saw it, to make the sheriff's staff look puny by comparison.

In April, Gascón testified on Capitol Hill against the sheriff's sweeps and faced his own mini-scandal when it emerged that an advocacy group in favor of open borders paid for his trip to Washington. The chief then paid back the money and took the days as vacation time.

Gascón said he believes undocumented immigrants shouldn't face arrest by local police just for being here illegally because that prevents them from reporting crime and allows gangs to take over entire neighborhoods.

"But if you're here committing crimes other than the undocumented crossing of the border, I believe the police should use every tool in the toolbox," he said.

Many advocates and supervisors in San Francisco, though, have slammed Newsom for his new policy of turning over undocumented youth arrested for felonies to federal authorities, regardless of whether they're found guilty. Gascón said he doesn't believe in a blanket policy for undocumented youth and that turning them over upon arrest would depend on their age and the severity of their alleged crime.

"If the juvenile commits a homicide ... I don't distinguish at that point between someone who's 18 and someone who's 16 or 17," he said. "On the other hand, if you have a 9- or 10-year-old and he commits a crime, he should be looked upon differently."

His refusal to arrest people just for being here illegally fits in well with San Francisco's sanctuary city policy, but polarized Arizona. Arpaio declined to comment for this story, saying through a spokesman that if he has nothing nice to say about somebody, he'd rather not say anything.

J.D. Hayworth, a former Arizona congressman who is now a conservative radio personality, did not hesitate to share his thoughts on Gascón.

"You can sit back and say, 'Oh yeah, now this all makes sense.' This has been a big audition to get the gig in the city by the bay," Hayworth said. "To the extent San Francisco was searching for a cover guy for the misguided sanctuary city policy, you found him in George Gascón."

A need for 'vision'

The San Francisco Police Commission was immediately impressed with Gascón after interviewing him last month. Commission President Theresa Sparks said that not only do his views on immigration align with the commission's, but his track record of change and innovation is desperately needed for the SFPD.

"I think many departments like this are inbred - an individual teaches the next generation the way they did it," she said. "What we want him to do is develop strategies and a vision for the department based on best practices, not based on the political whims of the city."

But the city may not have him for long. Gascón has been rumored to want the top job in the LAPD and was in the running for it in 2002, losing out to Chief Bratton.

He will make $292,000 annually when he starts his job. The chief of police has no contract and serves at the pleasure of the mayor and Police Commission.

Asked at the City Hall press conference how long he will stay in San Francisco, he said only, "This is a great city - I've been made to feel extremely welcome and I'm very glad to be back in California."

Officials in Mesa are disappointed he's leaving after three years.

"I was hoping he'd stay at least another two years. I teased him that he's like the Rick Pitino of police chiefs," said Dennis Kavanaugh, chair of the City Council's public safety committee, referring to the basketball coach who's led numerous teams.

"It's the way it is," Kavanaugh said, "when you have very successful people."

Matier & Ross: Newsom's choice for police chief works out just fine for mayor's political ambitions. B1

George Gascón

Age: 55

Childhood: Born and raised in Cuba, moved to Los Angeles at 13.

Current position: Police chief of Mesa, Ariz.

Previous experience: Los Angeles Police Department, 1978-81 and 1987-2006. Spent most of the '80s managing a car dealership and working as a volunteer police officer. Promoted to assistant chief in 2003 to oversee patrol and detective functions.

Education: Bachelor's degree in history from Cal State Long Beach, law degree from Western State University. Member of the California Bar Association. Participating in study of police innovation at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.